Room at the Top

This underseen British classic is like a breath of fresh air. Try as it might, prior to the 1960s and the American New Wave, Hollywood could never accomplish an effective sense of realism. Across the Atlantic, the story was an altogether different one: much of their shooting took place on-location in the breathtaking British countryside, or otherwise in the the shabby slums of the lower-class, successfully identifying audiences with the "common man." This realism is clearly evident in many of the Ealing comedies of the late 1940s and 1950s, but, with 'Room at the Top (1959),' British film-making reached a new peak of maturity. A frank and uncompromising treatment of sexuality and class prejudices, Jack Clayton's extraordinary feature-length debut was a seminal work in the development of adult-themed cinema, a commercial and critical success despite being branded with an X-rating in the UK. The brilliance of this film, coupled with that of 'The Innocents (1961)' two years later, leads me to wonder why I don't hear of this director with much greater frequency.

Joe Lampton (Laurence Harvey) is an ambitious young government accountant, proud of his lower-class heritage but determined to ascend the social ladder. Though he loathes the pretension and prejudices of Britain's wealthy upper-class, he is nonetheless determined to become one of them, a hypocrisy that triggers with in him an indescribable inner-torment. With this goal in mind, Lampton sets his sights on the innocent, virginal Susan Brown (Heather Sears), daughter of the most powerful man in town. He tries vainly to justify his advances through the pretext of love, all the while knowing that his intentions are strictly opportunistic. Alice Aisgill (Simone Signoret), a married French woman ten years his senior, proves Lampton's greatest obstacle to wealth, for he soon finds himself falling in love with her, for real this time. Torn between his affection for Alice and his ambitions towards prosperity and respectability, Lampton must eventually choose between the two, the consequences of his decision leaving an empty void where once there had been a bright, fresh and conscientious young man.

Impeccably shot in crisp black-and-white by Freddie Francis, 'Room at the Top' is a refreshing dose of mature drama, and occasionally an angry, scathing assault on the British class system. Laurence Harvey, in the main role, positively burns with rage as the moral-deprived young businessman, progressively less and less identifiable to the audience as he becomes those whom he despises (indeed, near the film's end, he even goes by the name of his sworn foe, Jack Wales). Simone Signoret, a surprise Oscar-winner that year, is smooth, knowing and assertive, with just a fatal hint of vulnerability, as Harvey's sincere but ultimately hopeless lover. Of the main performers, Heather Sears is least impressive, but her appearance could nonetheless put an end to a nagging question: who voiced the child-actor Martin Stephens in 'Village of the Damned (1960)' and 'The Innocents (1961)?' Though no such dubbing was credited, I realised straight away, without a quiver of uncertainty, that Sears spoke with exactly the same voice – either she dubbed Stephens, or a third-party dubbed the both of them.

Room At The Top filmed in 1959 takes place some ten years earlier in post war Great Britain as veteran Laurence Harvey takes it in his mind to rise from his lower class origins by any means possible. He's a devilishly attractive fellow and if that's what it takes to do it, than so be it. Not like it hasn't been done before on either side of the pond.

Harvey's got no family so to speak, his parents were killed in his small town when a German bomb hit their house. He's rootless now and has a crying need to belong somewhere.

The similarities in character to novelist John Braine's Joe Lampton and Theodore Dreiser's George Eastman are too obvious to overlook. However unlike Eastman, Lampton as played by Harvey is courting two very different kinds of women. Boss Donald Wolfit's daughter Heather Sears is a young and somewhat inexperienced young lady who's easy prey for Harvey. Wolfit and his wife Ambrosine Phillpotts see what's happening with their daughter, but can't ultimately do anything.

But while they're trying Harvey falls in with the unhappily married Simone Signoret. She's married to Allan Cuthbertson who's a cheating dog himself. She's got a lot of passion left in her and even though Harvey's ten years younger, she knows how to show him one real good time. Being French she has a different moral view of things than the folks of her adopted country and she thinks Harvey does as well. He does, but Harvey has his priorities.

Room At The Top was something that still couldn't be made in America because of the Code, but at least it was shown here. What Makes Sammy Run, a work by Budd Schulberg never had a big screen adaption and it had similar themes to Room At The Top, Still it got great critical acclaim and two Academy Awards and other nominations.

Simone Signoret got one of those Oscars, for Best Actress in 1959. It's a very subtle part she undertakes, in fact she's not the main character, Harvey is. Still when she's on the screen even Harvey's flashier character of Joe Lampton takes a back seat. Signoret is just fabulous as the older and still attractive woman, trapped in a loveless marriage will touch you dearly. She's one of the most beautiful and tragic figures ever done on screen.

Harvey was up for Best Actor, but he and the film itself were running in the year of Ben-Hur. He and the picture itself lost to Charlton Heston and the noble character he created on screen. Hermione Baddely who had a role similar to Thelma Ritter's in All About Eve was up for Best Supporting Actress, but she lost to Shelley Winters for The Diary Of Anne Frank.

Room At The Top with its brutally frank talk of sex mixed with ambition has become a classic and Joe Lampton became Laurence Harvey's signature role. Two sequels with Joe Lampton, Life At The Top and Man At the Top, were spawned from the original, the latter with Lampton played by Kenneth Haigh as Harvey had died by then. It's an enduring classic of the British, nay the English language cinema and should not be missed.

There's a rather angry man by name of Joe, he's been shaped by past events and they bestow, a ruthless urge to find success, fiscal and personal progress, and he's found a girl who'll give him just the tow. Susan Brown is being courted by another, but Joe's target is for him to be the lover, her family oozes affluence, the father has great influence, although he's far too working class for Susan's mother. Into the works, a spanner enters and distracts, a married woman pulls Joe over to new tracks, Alice is somewhat mature, but she's opened up a door, and Joe's struggling to keep himself intact.

We follow Joe Lampton as he attempts to climb the social ladder shortly after the close of WWII. He's a dislikeable bloke, unstable, abusive with a very short fuse, most likely because of the life he's led to date, but still no excuse. He soon finds out that dreams don't come true, that happiness is fleeting and that the grass isn't always greener. Two outstanding performances from Laurence Harvey and especially Simone Signoret (watch her in Les Diaboliques if you haven't already), but this needs to be watched with the era it was written and subsequently filmed in mind, as it doesn't carry over well into more modern times and parallels.

This is a superb movie. The plot is reminiscent of "An American Tragedy." But it takes place in England, and the hero is very much an Angry Young Man. Nevertheless, it is so beautifully written and directed it feels as fresh and new as if the such issues had never before been touched in movies.

Laurence Harvey, whom I'm generally not crazy about, is superb as the lower-class guy determined to make it big. He sets his sights on the boss's daughter, appealingly played by Heather Sears. But something happens to sidetrack him. And that something -- Simone Signoret -- is the main reason to see and to cherish "Room At The Top." She is very believable as the slightly shady older woman with whom he has a romance. And her eyes! Her eyes, suggesting wisdom and great depths of sadness, will break you heart. It seems like a simple performance and it is uncluttered, stark. But it is flawless. I can think of almost no other performance by a woman in an English-language movie that compares to Signoret's.

Set in an English factory town, "Room At The Top" tells the story of an ambitious, blue-collar cad named Joe Lampton (Laurence Harvey), the film's anti-hero, attracted to two women. One woman is his boss's daughter; ergo, she is his ticket to a bright financial future. The other is an older woman named Alice (Simone Signoret).

The script trends in the direction of melodramatic soap opera, with emphasis on character development. It's rather talky. And the plot is somewhat slow. On the other hand, because of the way in which sexual relationships are portrayed, the script was a bit ahead of its time. The story has a lot to say about individual sacrifice.

The film's naturalistic, B&W lighting is fine. Background music is nondescript and unimportant. The most significant element of the film, perhaps, is the high quality of acting. Both Donald Wolfit and Hermione Baddeley give really fine performances in support roles. But, of course, the real reason to see "Room At The Top" is to marvel at the outstanding performance of Simone Signoret, who won the Oscar for Best Actress in a lead role.

Although this is not my kind of film, it is very well made. It's an important film, both for its avant-garde sexual content and for the acting achievement of wonderful Simone Signoret.